Records: Rwf750m earmarked for Gacaca archives

The government intends to spend Rwf750 million to support efforts toward digitalisation of files accumulated from over 12,000 Gacaca courts. The Executive Secretary of the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide, Jean de Dieu Mucyo, made the revelations, yesterday, when the Minister for Sports and Culture, Julienne Uwacu, visited the Gacaca archives at the Rwanda National Police headquarters in Kacyiru, Kigali. A worker at the Gacaca Archive Centre demonstrates how the new storage material that can survive for 30 years under any conditions. Doreen Umutesi. Mucyo said the money will be spent on equipment to be used in preservation and archiving.“Since we will have the equipment in place, the next slot of financing from the government may be slightly lower,” he said. Minister Uwacu spoke out on claims that some Gacaca files have gone missing. “We need to first know how many are missing or have disappeared, and we can only know the specifics after the digitisation of the archives. After we will have to find out the circumstances under which the files may have disappeared and who was responsible for them at the time they disappeared,” she said. A worker at Gacaca Archives headquarters in Kacyiru shows the condition of some of the archives to Minister Uwacu and Mucyo. Under a 2012 organic law terminating Gacaca courts and determining mechanisms for resolving issues arising from the cases, there are only four circumstances under which retrials can be initiated in conventional courts. They include the situation where the person alleged to have been killed by the convict is found to be alive, if two convicts were accused of killing the same person and there was no complicity between them, if new evidence for criminal responsibility is found against an acquitted person, and in case a person has been convicted or acquitted by a Gacaca Court final judgment and later it is proven in court that judges who rendered the decision were corrupt. Sports and Culture Minister Julienne Uwacu briefs the Media at Gacaca archives headquarters in Kacyiru. “The law is clear, and no one can use the legal prerogative to file for a retrial, but if they do, I believe the judiciary has mechanisms to deal with that since the decision on a retrial is solely in the power of the judges,” said the minister. The 60 million pages packed in 16,545 boxes puts them at a higher risk, but during the visit yesterday, it was found out that officials had started moving the documents into new boxes meant for preservation (with a 30-year lifespan) and placed in modern shelves acquired from The Netherlands. Sports and Culture Minister Julienne Uwacu (L)together with Executive Secretary of CNLG, Jean de Dieu Mucyo arrive at Gacaca archives headquarters in Kacyiru. (All photos by Doreen Umutesi) Adopted from Rwanda’s traditional mechanism of resolving conflict, Gacaca courts were used to respond to post-Genocide challenges of providing redress for victims, holding perpetrators accountable, and restoring harmony among Rwandans. The Gacaca justice system officially closed shop on June 18, 2012 after handling 1.9 million cases in a span of ten years editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Records: Rwf750m earmarked for Gacaca archives